M&S pulled in a record number of shoppers over the Christmas period, with strong food sales growth more than making up for continued weakness in fashion, home and beauty.
Food sales hit £2.7bn in the 13 weeks to 28 December, up 6.6% overall and up 5.6% in like-for-like terms, as the grocer delivered 2.3% UK volume growth.
Including Ocado Retail’s now-consolidated accounts, the group brought in just under £5bn over the period, with sales growth excluding Ocado at 3.3%, and maintained its FY26 financial guidance.
“From the festive food shop, to picking up party outfits and gifts, millions more trusted M&S to deliver the family Christmas,” said M&S chief executive Stuart Machin, celebrating a new milestone of 4% of grocery market share achieved over the period.
“We are the UK’s fastest-growing grocer for families, reflecting our investment in value and core family staples, and demonstrating progress in our journey to become a shopping list retailer.”
Food sales growth was supported by strength in core grocery categories, with M&S highlighting innovation and quality upgrades in Italian ready meals, in-store bakery and deli items, and a 20% growth in value ranges.
However, the retailer has not yet been able to put behind it the difficulties of its Easter 2025 cyberattack, as its fashion, home and beauty sales fell 2.5% to £1.3bn.
Machin said the segment was “getting back on track” as M&S “worked through the tail end of recovery”.
“Sales overall were slightly down but online performance continued to improve as digital sales recovered,” he added.
Like-for-like sales were down 2.9%, with performance reflecting low high street footfall and the continued disruption to stock data and management following the cyberattack, leading the retailer to put more items into seasonal offers.
“We planned a bigger sale this year, with strong sell-through already making way for our new season lines,” Machin added.
Now consolidated into M&S’ accounts, Ocado Retail grew by 13.7% to hit £843m in the period, driven by 10.7% volume growth and order growth of 11%; M&S sales on Ocado.com accounted for around 30% of the site’s total sales.
M&S said it planned to accelerate its customer-focused strategy in the new year, to create “exceptional” products, increase investment in value, transforming its stores and online experience, and improving its supply chain while delivering structural cost reductions.
M&S’ performance has put it “on-track” to deliver H2 profit in line with the comparable period in FY2025, said Shore Capital analyst Clive Black.
“It’s a solid sales performance in the circumstances,” he said. “Given the wider context of the operational challenges from April 2025 plus the mild autumn weather and the depressive impact of Rachel Reeves upon the UK consumer’s mood, we see [it] as resilient and solid, noting strong prior year comparatives.
“If the firm meets and beats our FY27 expectations, then its equity is grossly under-rated and the stock undervalued.”
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